Jane woke in darkness, and belatedly realized something was wrong. She wasn't on carpet anymore, and the room she had laid down in had gotten a bit of light from the streetlamps outside. She reached out and found her pack right where it was supposed to be, serving as her pillow. There was a nagging thought in her head, but she ignored it for now. Reaching into a pocket near her waist, she clicked the dial that activated her shoulder lights. The battery was fresh, and She'd packed spares, as well as a solar charger, so she should be set for several hours at least. Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the change in illumination, revealing a stone chamber that looked like it belonged in an old European castle. Had she been caught up in a hidden camera show? There weren't any castles like this on Averan. Concrete had been a far more popular material in the old days, and still was for underground work. Still, it was unlikely. Her parents wouldn't spring something like that on her, and no reputable producer would kidnap her.

Jane shivered. A disreputable one, however... It would be best to assume that her relocation had been the work of a malignant entity. Such an entity could be considered the bad guys. Jane had been hoping to make friends rather than enemies, but at least this might be interesting. She felt the subconscious itch for her handheld, the personal communication and computation device that had evolved from cellphones. But She'd left that at her parent's, along with all its peripherals. She had an emergency radio beacon She'd rigged up, but she wasn't confident that it would penetrate much stone. Exiting the room was therefore her first priority.

Jane quickly and efficiently packed her sleeping bag and shouldered her pack. Then she started to move towards the door, and realized that the roll of cloth on the ground was a person. A person with a slit wrist. Oh, and there was the smell. Jane had no idea why she hadn't noticed it before. There was this buzzing in her mind, prodding her to move, to find something. Well, Jane reasoned, She'd just found something. The likelihood of at least one malignant entity was now all but confirmed, though person probably hadn't died soley from the slit on their wrist. They had a head wound from where they'd collapsed to the floor, and the blood hadn't splattered far enough away for them to have been standing and then blacked out. She only analyzed the scene like that because she was treating this all like a mystery from the net library. And in such mysteries every clue was important. Examining the room closer, she noted a large engraved ring-like design centered on where she'd awoken. It reminded her vaguely of a Mandala, but with lots of squiggles that could be runes of some sort. Now, what could that be? A magic circle?

Jane had never put much stock in magic. After all, "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." And a handheld would seem pretty magical to anyone who wasn't familiar with their theory of operation. Some of the more advanced tech the grad students studied was so far beyond Jane's understanding it might as well be magic.

Still, this mystery may involve something that connected to myth, legend, or fantasy, if only in appearance. She would not disregard the possibility that the technology in use here would be different than that she was familiar with. The language might differ as well. Something to be careful of. Now, the most relevant question: to loot the body or leave it be?

Jane elected not to disturb the body, and headed towards the stairs. She did not want to get involved in a homicide investigation, her own kidnapping, should ot reach the level of the authorities, would be more than enough trouble.

There were stairs only a few steps beyond the door, leading up to a wooden trap-door. Remembering to lift with her legs, Jane heaved, and it swung open with a crash. She was in the woods, a narrow trail threading away from the point she'd emerged. A yellow sun shone through autumn leaves, and Jane cursed inwardly. It had been the summer solstice. Either She'd been in some sort of stasis field, or she was no longer on Averan. Neither possibility was comforting. Jane reached in her jacket and clicked on her distress beacon. Hopefully this planet had EM communications.

#

S'Thell groaned as he woke up with a splitting headache. What was that ringing in his ears? He'd been trying to sleep. Numbly the forty-meter long dragon raised his head from the bed of woven steel cables that he'd had manufactured a century ago. Oh, it was one of the recieving crystals. The mages sometimes used them. But this wasn't an Elven voice, nor the similar hiss of a Naga. No, this was a piercing tone of unwavering pitch that pulsed, three long tones, then three short tones, then three long. And the cycle repeated. That was a human pattern. They would beat it out when calling for help. Not that there were any humans around to answer. The elves had been quite set on imprisoning any who set foot on Selathar. That they had been the ones to summon them had been a part of their motivation.

S'Thell growled. The human would probably die soon. But in the meantime, the pulsing noise was getting in the way of his nap. He couldn't just smash the crystal-it was part of his hoard, and S'Thell had been a supply officer before his wing had disbanded. Unless the proper forms were filled out, or there was a fellow Wyrm bleeding out in front of him, he wouldn't part with the least portion of it.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

He would hunt down the source of the signal, he decided. It should be easy to track- a quick scrying spell should do the trick. S'thell flexed his Mana-organ and empowered the bowl of mercury he used for such spells. A few moments later, an image resolved, drawn from one of the crystal observatories his wing had deployed in orbit prior to their war with the elves. A humanoid hiked through a forest, in a region that had once been under the domain of Elven ritual mages. The observatory lacked the ability to more precisely identify the target, but their projected course would take them towards an Elven highway.

S'Thell weighed the pros and cons of interfering. If the wing had missed a bit of human technology in their sack of the Elven kingdoms, it's reappearance could be inconvenient. If an actual human had been summoned, it might have something even more dangerous. The pesky tree-piranahs would use it as an excuse to wage war, as they did anything human in origin. Still bitter after their slaves had given them a blak eye. Oh, they claimed that their slaving days were over, that they were now 'enlightened,' but elves held grudges like no other. The humans had proven to dangerous to meddle with in the wake of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A lesser-known force of humans had delivered a similar device right to Selethar's doorstep.

S'Thell resigned himself to an excursion. Perhaps the human would be able to tell him tales to make up for interrupting his nap.

#

Jane has been hiking for about an hour when she reaches the road. It's not much, mostly packed dirt and gravel raised a few feet above the level of the surrounding forest floor, but it's a landmark. Picking a direction at random, she sets out. It's another hour before she heard the dull roar of a jet, and she looks up.

"Oh. That's new," she says with her jaw hanging open. The Jet is a dragon. Or a drone shaped like a dragon. All doubt leaves her mind accent later when it drops out of the sky and lands ahead of her on the highway. The creature is massive,even with its wings folded in on either side of its serpentine body. She's never seen an illustration like it- the jaw splits open like that of a snake, and it has six limbs in addition to its massive wings. It glares at her for a moment, and the buzzing in the back of her mind goes away. Instead, a smooth voice speaks near her ear.

"Human. We need to talk."

#

It had taken S'Thell about an hour and a half to reach the human, deep as it was in Elven territory. He'd had to dodge a few homing spells cast by overenthusiastic mages, but it had been an otherwise relaxing flight. Nothing so turbulent as the war, or the storms his wingmates had liked to chase. His thermal vision had easily identified the human from afar, and his magical sense had detected the geas as he landed. It had been shoddy, likely the work of an inexperienced mage. A quick flex of his Mana-organ and it was dispelled.

"Human, we need to talk," he started. The human picked it's jaw up off the ground and fixed it into a forced grin.

"What shall we talk about? I could personally use some directions to a friendly settlement." The woman replied in accented American. American-accented American at that. Some linguistic drift was not unreasonable, after all, it had been a long time. S'Thell was actually rather surprised that she had the American accent. Mandarin had had more native speakers when the last Intel from earth had come through.

"My communication crystal picked up your distress call. I know of no one on this planet who would answer it in good faith, and would prefer to keep any technology you may bear out of Elven hands."

"If you've got communication crystals, you've already got more advanced tech than anything I have with me. A question, if it isn't rude. Are you fully biological, cybernetically enhanced, or communicating via proxy? Assuming, of course, that you are not a fully synthetic entity."

"A rather roundabout way of asking what I am, don't you think?"

"Hey, I've never met someone or something like this," the woman gestured to S'Thell."

"I am organic, and speaking to you via a simple spell."

"Cool. Is it culturally appropriate to exchange names? How should I refer to you?"

"You may refer to me as Thell," S'Thell replied.

"And you may refer to me as Jane," the woman volunteered. "I appreciate the break from hiking, but I'd really like to reach a friendly settlement. I don't suppose you could guide me to one?"

S'Thell sighed. Humans, always in such a rush. Still, it would be wise to get off the road.

"I can carry you back to my lair, if you wish. It will take a few hours, but it will give us time to converse."

"What are my choices? As you see them?"

"Come with me, or die to predators in the forest. The elves are the most common hunters, but there are also wolves and cats that keep the herbivores in check"

"Well, when you put it like that. How are we going to handle windspeed and air pressure? I didn't bring a helmet."

"I know a spell that should suffice."

"Well then, shall we be off?"

#

Jane was reconsidering her spontaneous decision to trust a dragon to fly her to its lair. On the one hand, their negative reputation and the fact it claimed no one on the planet would answer her distress call in good faith. That probably meant he had an ulterior motive as well. Also, elves were a thing. Probably. On the other hand, elves also had some negative reputation, and Dragon's were cool. And she got this view. Sure, she was clutched in the claw of an objectively terrifying jet-propelled apex predator (assuming there weren't things that ate dragons besides other apex predators), but this way she got a much better idea of the area's geography. Assuming this wasn't all an illusion.

Eventually, they reached a towering volcanic mountain, and swooped down to land in a cave opening out of a cliff face. Jane noted the massive steel doors on either side of the entrance, then turned her attention to the cavern within.

"So, Dragon-sized Jacuzzi?" She wondered aloud.